PITTSBURGH—More than two dozen industry partners have joined with Carnegie Mellon University and other Pittsburgh-area universities and community colleges to create an associate degree program that will train technicians to build and maintain robots and other embedded computer systems, which have become ubiquitous in today's world.

The two-year associate degree in Robotics Engineering Technology was developed by the Robotics Corridor, a public-private consortium dedicated to building the infrastructure necessary to support the robotics industry in southwestern Pennsylvania and adjoining states. Graduates will be qualified to work as mid-level managers or highly qualified technologists in all technology-intensive industries, said Robin Shoop, director of Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Academy and director of the Robotics Corridor project.

Pittsburgh's growing robotics industry is only one potential employer for the program's graduates.

"Smart systems are everywhere; we just don't call them robots," Shoop explained. "They already are in your home, your office and your car and are designed to help people do things quicker, better and more efficiently." Products as diverse as automobiles, medical equipment and heating and air conditioning systems include embedded computer systems and industries such as mining, agriculture and construction increasingly rely on embedded systems.

Building, installing and maintaining these rapidly advancing systems will require technologists who not only are computer literate, but also are trained to be lifelong learners, Shoop said. To that end, the Robotics Corridor received input from 25 area industries about the types of technical and learning skills that needed to be incorporated into the new degree program.